Northwestern students will head to the polls again Friday in an ASG runoff election between Kameron Dodge-Steven Monacelli and Victor Shao-Brad Stewart.
No candidate won a majority of the vote Wednesday. Shao, a Weinberg junior, and Stewart, a Medill junior, missed the majority needed to win by fewer than 200 votes, Shao said. According to statistics provided by ASG, Shao-Stewart received almost 42 percent of the vote, with Kam=Steven coming in a close second with almost 33 percent. Overall, 3,597 students voted in the election.
McCormick sophomore Alex Van Atta was elected student life vice president and McCormick sophomore Neil Mehta was elected academic vice president.
In a predictably close race, the idea of a presidential and vice-presidential runoff was discussed before the results were made official. Members of the Dodge-Monacelli campaign jokingly played Wilson Phillips’ hit “Hold On,” calling it their theme if a runoff did occur.
“We’ve been preparing for this since the beginning of the election,” SESP junior Dodge said, as he, Communication junior Monacelli and their campaign manager, Weinberg sophomore Tori Zuzelo, rushed off immediately for a strategy meeting. “We’re very excited. We’re ready.”
“Okay, let’s get to work.” Monacelli said.
Feelings at the Shao-Stewart headquarters were similar.
“We’re going to do the same thing,” Shao said after learning of the runoff. “We’re going to mobilize as many people as we can.”
The campaign team also kicked into high gear, planning meetings and checking up on the Rock, which bore their “Express Yourself” slogan on Election Day.
“Let’s do it!” Stewart said. “Take two.”
Conceding the election Wednesday was the Dan Tully-Jeziel Jones campaign, who stopped their basketball game outside of Foster-Walker Complex briefly to listen to the election outcome. They received 829 votes, comprising about 23 percent of the total. Before hearing the results, Weinberg junior Tully shook hands with all of his campaign members.
“I think all three teams did a really great job at campaigning,” Tully said. “I am confident that now whoever wins, we’ll all have a good senior year next year.”
Additional reporting by Katherine Mirani, Robinson Meyer and Annalise Frank.
Full disclosure: Steven Monacelli has been involved with NBN as assistant politics editor, and Max Brawer, pictured above, is a former editor and marketing director for NBN.